Monday, December 7, 2009

Course Description


Picture: View from Photographer's Point in Wind River Mountains near Pinedale, Wyoming.

The American West and the Historical Imagination

A noted historian once wrote that "the West has been America's most strongly imagined region." This course will examine the West as an historic and imagined place in both North America and Europe, often stressing the influence of popular culture on understandings of the region. Historical topics include: the migrations and meeting of all peoples in the West; saloons and prostitution; violence; changing eco-systems; the fur trade; transportation; ranching and farming; ethnicity and race; political reform and modern Western life.